THE REPEATED textures of slender pieces of stacked Bouquet Canyon
flagstone bring continuity and an instant patina of age to this
remodeled front garden in Camarillo, California.

The fractured, horizontal layers start at the street, where the
stones mask a mailbox, and continue along both sides of a curving
stairway, which leads to a lower-level driveway and entry. The walls arc
into the hill to create raised planters that wrap around olive trees
added to the regraded slope. (A curved retaining wall edges the driveway
at the far end of the gently bermed yard.) Finally, a low wall of
stacked rocks projects from the house to form a rectangular bench along
the entry patio.

Except for the top layers, which have been grouted, the rock walls
appear "dry stacked" or mortarless, a look that accentuates
the cracks between the layers. In fact, the rocks' back edges have
been mortared to unseen concrete building blocks in the center of the
walls.

Other new surfaces also age the yard. The concrete stairs have a
water-washed finish, which roughens the surface to reveal the aggregate
and create a well-worn texture. Interlocking concrete pavers replace the
old, cracked driveway, but the pavers stop short of the rock walls to
allow for hardscape-softening pockets of plants.

The design is by Nick Williams and Associates of Tarzana, California.

COPYRIGHT 1993 Sunset Publishing Corp.
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.